Step 8: prehistoric pumps

Talk about walking with dinosaurs! Kick it really (really) old school with a pair of Dinosaur Heels that look just as good touring Jurassic Park as they do strolling down Park Avenue. These prehistoric pump upgrades are fully functional, the standard heel has been replaced with a steel bolt welded to the sole shank, with hollow dinosaur toys to cover up the hardware. It looks like these tiny terrors are holding you up, or maybe chasing you down as you are running away trying to escape Isla Nubla.

After the internet went crazy a month ago for these dinosaur shoes I knew I wanted to recreate them. If you read about those shoes while they were trending then you probably know that these shoes were reposted allovertheplace. Every article had the same grainy picture and everyone was asking the same two questions: "where can I get some?" and "how were they made?".
I'm here to tell you that you can make them yourself, and I'm going to show you how.

Here's the basics on what you need:

tools:

welder

rotary tool

drill

pliers / knife / screwdrivers

materials:

ladies heels

spray paint

plastic dinosaurs

steel bolts

Ready to make your own? Let's get started!

Step 1: Materials + Concept

The idea is to replace the standard fluted heel with a slender support post, then hide that post with a hollow plastic dinosaur. This will give the illusion that the dinosaur is holding up the shoe. To keep this project accessible I used very basic components.

faux crocodile skin ladies heels - thrift store - $7.00

plastic dinosaurs - Dollar Store - $2.00

1/4" bolts - hardware store - $5.00

spring doorstops - hardware store - $1.50

With many of the additional pieces either on hand or found, I spent under $20 to make my dinosaur heels.

Dinosaurs: You will need to find dinosaurs that are roughly the same size as the heels you want to replace. My local Dollar Store had an entire bin of appropriately sized dinosaurs for me to choose from. Dilophosaurus worked best for me.Shoes: I chose a crocodile skin texture for my shoes, as it looked the most dinosaur-esque and matched my dinosaursBolts: Any 1/4" bolt will work. I chose these u-bolts to experiment with, but ended up not using the u-bend like I had thought and just cut them straight.
End Caps: I needed to protect the end of the heel spikes from damaging any floor surfaces when walking. I tried to reuse the old heel caps but they just didn't work with my new design. I found that the plastic caps found on spring soorstops fit perfectly and are made from a thick, tough plastic. Perfect for this application. And, if they ever get worn out, they are easy to replace.

<p>if men were already in trouble with women with claws, now watch out men here come women with attitude and teeth</p>

<p>These are adorable but look like a lot of work. Couldn't you just drill a hole in the dinosaur, stick the heel through, and glue the dinosaur to the bottom of the sole? I don't know if it would work, but seems like a lot less work.</p>

<p>That's what I did! Works just fine =)</p>

<p>Thanks for the inspiration. My dad made me these after I found a pair of shoes in a charity shop and a couple of cheap Dino toys. I'm so pleased with them, and I wearing them tonight for NYE! yahey!</p>

<p>These are just the best. I had never seen this Instructable! Amazing. I want to make some. Rawr!!!</p>

<p>dang it if you didn't get me roped into six pair of these for my granddaughters and their mommies....(trouble maker!). The only variation I made to the theme was that it kept making me die a little inside to be able to see the support bolt! As a jack of many trades during my life, engineering balance and cantilevered structure into this form was not too difficult once I conferred with an architect friend. After opting for the solid Dino, hollowing out the leg, forming the heel fork (opted for over the single support for balance) I formed the support to match the required final form needed. Then using my heat gun sparingly made the plastic malleable enough to feed the support through it and force it back into proper shape as it cooled. (A wee bit of plastic filler and paint matching later and it was great!) I'm going to pretend senility if they ever ask for another pair! In fact, I may not have to pretend... Thanks for a marvelous bile that made my family happy for now!</p>

<p>Is there any simpler way to make these if you don't have access to a welder tool or experience with one either?</p>

that's brilliant

Wow! This is totally awesome! My daughter gave me a pair of heels that I want to decorate, they are really ugly but grand, if that makes sense. Not sure I want to turn them into dino shoes though! They are more like a shoe a witch would wear!

black cants will look cute!

Maybe spider webs from heel to toe? Or a bat?

My feet are hurting just looking at the pointy toes on those shoes!

black cats. better yet, black panthers.

Wouldn't it be simpler to drill a hole into the dinosaur that fits the existing shoe heel? Of course, that's not as much fun as deconstructing the shoe, but it sure would save time. <br>

I was thinking of doing the same thing, since I don't know how to use welding equipment. =)

These are amazing! I love them!

These shoes are GREAT!! You can do it with every little plastic animal! Cows, elephants, giraffes... these last for very for tall heels! ;-)

That's exactly the idea! I was going to make shoes with horses in the heels, as a riff of "horse shoes", but then associating a horse with ladies isn't very nice - so I never made them. :)

As if I didn't already have enough projects on my plate! <br> <br>These are awesome, and I totally want to do do this, but I may re-paint the dinosaurs first. I wonder how expensive color shifting paint at the auto store is?

At the risk if sounding simple, couldn't you save yourself a ton of work and just put the dinosaur onto the existing heel??

They would have to be some big toy dinosaurs to cover the entire heel. Can you show me an easier way to make these while achieving the same effect?

Why would they have to be bigger? Using a pair of shoes of the approximate same height as the dinosaurs with a very thin stiletto heel, then just attaching the dinosaurs directly to the heel. I guess I'm not getting why you have to make a new heel?

"very thin stiletto heel" would of course work, as that's all I've done with these shoes (replace the fat heel with something thin). They didn't have green crocodile print stilettos at the Thrift Store I got my shoes at.

What ever the shoes, you can stamp on a fake texture with paint, even change the color of the shoes completely. Sculpy clay that fits the heels, then attach with glue to any heel.. but it wouldn't have that way cool rubber toys-grew-from-this-shoe look.

Couldn't you just slip the toys over the existing heel with glue by getting <br> the right size toy or making one out of Sculpy that fits through the heel like a shish ke bab?

Couldn't you just slip the toys over the existing heel with glue by getting <br> the right size toy or making one out of Sculpy that fits through the heel like a shish ke bab?

Wow, I had no idea that shoes were that intensely put together. I love what you've done.

After wrestling off that industrial cleat and almost snapping a screwdriver I have a new respect for high heel shoe construction.

Yes! When I saw pictures of neon green T-Rex heels floating around the internet I knew I needed to DIY it - I'm so glad you've worked out exactly how it should be done!

Thanks!

GREAT! I got a job to do for christmas :-)

I really want to see your results! I want to remake these again experimenting with a quadruped.

Awesome! I saw this thumbnail on instructables' facebook page, and thought, &quot;That looks exactly like something mikeasaurus would do.&quot; You have a very distinctive style!